Triptych - The brief and ideas

STUDIO BRIEF: 3 TRIPTYCH

Brief

“Triptych - a picture or relief carving on three panels, typically hinged together vertically”

Produce one third of a weekly trio of poster designs submitted by the third year Graphic Design students. The trio are selected in association with their individual style of practice, to be appreciated together. No specific concept is needed for this brief, which means no boundaries when creating. The design must be suitable for an A1 poster, to be seen along side the works of Beth Taylor and Ros Halford.

Background/Considerations

Create a design that can be suited to the other two designers.

Take an interest and develop this in to my poster in order to create something more decorative rather than functional

Discussion with the both Beth and Ros in order for our designs to have a connection, with this either being colour palette or theme.

Mandatory Requirements

On-going research, experiments and decision making must be documented on my blog.

Design boards examining design changes and decisions.

Deliverables

A1 file ready to be printed as a poster.

Poster design that works as one third of a trio.

Poster that could potentially be extended into a separate brief.



Initial ideas
The use of watercolour and how the paint is applied to different paper stocks creates an interesting texture, as the poster design will be flat it could be interesting to play with different medias and how they can be applied to paper. Looking at illustration as a starting point and looking into how soft images can be paired with linear designs; research into anatomical illustrations of bone studies is also shown on the design practice blog. Having the idea to combine the concepts of natural forms together was the starting point. 

This brief was set by one of my peers; three individuals chosen weekly based on their creative styles are asked to create a design suitable for an A1 poster, the design being anything we choose. In my group, I was chosen to work along side of Ros and Beth, as we all create designs which originate from a hand rendered style of design. 

Theme/concept

Ros, Beth and I discussed what we wanted to create for our poster, they suggested creating something humorous as we could create anything we wanted, however I wanted to experiment with a different style as opposed to what I usually create. Our poster designs will still include that hand rendered element which will allow the pieces of work to compliment each other, hand rendered style design is much more appropriate for my style of design. 

Beth asked Ros and I for a colour swatch, so that she could incorporate a colour from each  of our designs which we all thought would work nicely once the designs are printed at a large scale. 

For my triptych poster design I wanted to use mixed media, watercolour often appears in my work so I wanted to play around with the contrast of soft, floral watercolours with the harsh lines created on the computer; combining two different styles of design. With the concept for the poster not needing to be explained, I wanted to create an illustrative piece which I don't usually experiment with. 

The poster is to seen as one of three next to each other, as a decorative piece.

The posters are to be displayed in uni in A1 size frames as a weekly exhibition.

Photography publication layout and visual research

In order to begin designing the publication, I have looked at various styles of photography publications and editorial magazines. All of which are inspiring for this brief, they show different variation and applications of text and image, which show how different aesthetics can be achieved; minimal type allows the photography to be the focal point on a page, which is something that I need to consider when designing my showcase book as the photography alone is the content and it needs to speak for itself.  

Looking into fashion photography books and coffee table style books was the initial point for research, to provide a knowledge on how specific styling and aesthetic design is used for this type of product. 

Creating content from research

Evolution of fashion photography 

To create this publication showcasing the evolution of fashion photography, I have devised a timeline from thorough research, and chosen the more significant movements from 1910 to present day, as shown below. The photographic archive shows how women in the fashion industry can be sexualised. 

Edward Steichen

"Conde Naste' firs fashion photographer"

Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/edward-steichen-in-vogue-125189608/?no-ist

For the photographers who followed him, Edward Steichen left a creative wake of Mozartean dimensions. There was not much that he didn't do, and do extraordinarily well. Landscapes, architecture, theater and dance, war photography—all appear in his portfolio.

Though Steichen didn't invent fashion photography, an argument can be made that he created the template for the modern fashion photographer. A new book, Edward Steichen in High Fashion: The Condé Nast Years 1923-1937, and an exhibit through May 3 at the International Center of Photography in New York make that argument with verve. Though expensively dressed women had attracted other photographers (notably the very young Jacques-Henri Lartigue in Paris), Steichen set an enduring standard.

Photography:

Horst. P. Horst 

Source: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-horst-photographer-of-style/about-the-exhibition/

Horst P. Horst (1906-99) created images that transcend fashion and time. He was a master of light, composition and atmospheric illusion, who conjured a world of sensual sophistication. In an extraordinary sixty-year career, his photographs graced the pages of Vogue and House and Garden under the one-word photographic byline ‘Horst’. He ranks alongside Irving Penn and Richard Avedon as one of the pre-eminent fashion and portrait photographers of the 20th century.

Photography: 

Alexy Brodovitch

Source: http://www.aiga.org/medalist-alexeybrodovitch/

Alexey Brodovitch is remembered today as the art director of Harper's Bazaar for nearly a quarter of a century. But the volatile Russian emigré's influence was much broader and more complex than his long tenure at a fashion magazine might suggest. He played a crucial role in introducing into the United States a radically simplified, “modern” graphic design style forged in Europe in the 1920s from an amalgam of vanguard movements in art and design. Through his teaching, he created a generation of designers sympathetic to his belief in the primacy of visual freshness and immediacy. Fascinated with photography, he made it the backbone of modern magazine design, and he fostered the development of an expressionistic, almost primal style of picture-taking that became the dominant style of photographic practice in the 1950s.

Photography:

Lillian Bassman

Influential photographer who brought a more artistic approach to the fashion pages of Harper’s BazaarFor part of the 20th century Lillian Bassman was the doyenne of fashion photography. Her graceful, monochrome images appeared extensively in Harper’s Bazaar where she worked under the guidance of the magazine’s renowned art director Alexey Brodovitch. 

Photography:

Richard Avedon

Source: http://www.biography.com/people/richard-avedon-9193034#synopsis

American photographer Richard Avedon was best known for his work in the fashion world and for his minimalist, large-scale character-revealing portraits, shooting for Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, demanding that his models convey emotion and movement, a departure from the norm of motionless fashion photography.

Photography:

Louise Dahl-Wolfe

Source: http://www.creativephotography.org/artists/louise-dahl-wolfe

Louise Dahl-Wolfe (United States, 1895–1989) is best known as a fashion photographer. Her tenure at Harper’s Bazaar from 1936 until 1958, a period when the journal was at the vanguard of dramatic changes to the style and content of women’s magazines, provided her with particular prestige. Although she is generally recognized for her astute and early use of color photography to illustrate fashion, a closer examination of Dahl-Wolfe’s body of work reveals a much more complex photographer. Through masterful combination of artistic skill, art historical knowledge, cultural consciousness, and aesthetic refinement, Dahl-Wolfe created images that constitute important contributions to the history of photography.

Photography: 

David Bailey

Source: http://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Bailey

Bailey’s fashion work and celebrity portraiture, characterized by stark backgrounds and dramatic lighting effects, transformed British fashion and celebrity photography from chic but reserved stylization to something more youthful and direct. His work reflects the 1960s British cultural trend of breaking down antiquated and rigid class barriers by injecting a working-class or “punk” look into both clothing and artistic products.

Photography: 

Herb Ritts

Source: http://www.herbritts.com/#/about/biography/ 

Herb Ritts was drawn to clean lines and strong forms. This graphic simplicity allowed his images to be read and felt instantaneously. His work often challenged conventional notions of gender or race. Social history and fantasy were both captured and created by his memorable photographs of noted individuals in film, fashion, music, politics, and society.

Photography: 

Guy Bourdin

(provocative photography)

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/feb/26/guardian-live-guy-bourdin-the-most-influential-fashion-photographer-of-all-time

'Sinister sexuality of Guy Bourdin'

Guy Bourdin’s fashion photography was one of the genre’s most pioneering. From his 1950s heyday at Paris Vogue in the 1950s through to the 1980s, he was arguably responsible for much of what contemporary fashion produces now, inspiring everyone from Tim Walker to Nick Knight. With a focus on the concept that the product is secondary to the image, he was able to turn the ordinary and functional into the extraordinary. 

Photography: 

Steven Klein

Source: http://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/steven-klein

Steven Klein’s hyperreal, pin-sharp and sexually charged photography has captivated the fashion industry for 28 years since his first professional job, shooting a Christian Dior campaign in 1985.

Klein’s editorial work is renowned for its ability to transform his subjects’ images into powerful visual statements, magnifying popular conceptions of the individual or the inspiration behind the story. “You give him a dress,” remarked Anna Wintour , “and he will give you a girl in a dress with a robot in a garden.” 

Photography: 

Steven Meisel

Source: http://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/steven-meisel

Steven Meisel is one of the greats of fashion photography. A favourite of Anna Wintour and Franca Sozzani , he has come to dominate the Italian fashion industry, shooting every Italian Vogue cover for the last two decades and every Prada campaign since 2004.

Editorially, Meisel’s fierce defense of his aesthetics’ independence has led to him creating some of fashion’s best and most controversial fashion stories, including shooting the entirety of Italian Vogue’s 2008 all black issue. He told 032c “My favourites are the ones that allow me to say something: the black issue; the poking fun at celebrities one; the paparazzi thing; the mental institution one; the ones that I have a minute to think about; all the ones that are the most controversial in fact. But it’s not because they are controversial that I like them, but because they say a little more than just a beautiful woman in a beautiful dress. I love that too, but to try and say something is also my goal.”

Photography:

Terry Richardson

Source: http://www.businessoffashion.com/community/people/terry-richardson

One of fashion’s most controversial photographers, Terry Richardson’s sexually charged and hedonistic aesthetic has made his work perennially popular with editors, designers and consumers. His editorials have appeared in a multitude of magazines including Rolling Stone, GQ, British and American Vogue, Vanity Fair, i-D, and Vice.

Richardson is no stranger to controversy due to the youthful look of many of his model and the sexually charged, and at times explicit nature of his visual aesthetic.

Photography:

For each different photographer there will be several spreads for each, the photography will boast the photographers most influential and eye catching shoots, that when compiled together in one publication allow the reader to learn how different styling in fashion photography has changed.